Liam Dann: Party leaders make their pitch for business vote

Prime Minister, and Labour Party leader, Jacinda Ardern talks to business on Friday during her visit to Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

COMMENT:

If you think the solution to the economic hole we are in is a fiscally responsible focus on infrastructure, education and exports, with a view to transforming the economy to a smarter, greener, more productive, more equitable place, you're in luck.

So do the leaders of all our major political parties ... apparently.

Exactly how we achieve this hitherto elusive goal is not quite so obvious.

All five major party leaders were on show at the Deloitte Chapman Tripp BusinessNZ Election Conference on Friday morning, offering business voters their best pitch.

Their brief was to answer the question: what is your party's plan for economic growth?

That question was a reflection of the standout result in a new Deloitte Chapman Tripp survey.

It found that only 19 per cent of respondents from the business community think there is a clear plan for the economy.

That compares to 80 per cent in the last election campaign.

The various leaders were all very good at defining the challenges the economy now faces.

They can carve up the mountains of debt the country is piling up in illustrative ways that provoke shock and awe.

There was widespread agreement that we can't cut spending or tax our way out of this crisis.

We should instead run a more efficient, productive and higher value economy.

Which is reassuring.

But for anyone hoping for specific ideas about how we might actually achieve this holy grail of economic transformation, there was less to inspire great confidence.

The nature of the current crisis has combined with the nuances of our MMP system to provide Labour (as popular centrist incumbent) and Act - (the party most able to run clearly oppositional policy) a clear advantage in this election.

It is showing in the polls and it showed in the presentations.

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern was her usual calm, confident self.

The PM has learned how to address a business crowd.

For this speech there was an emphasis on boosting foreign direct investment - leveraging New Zealand's now strong global reputation as a Covid-19 safe haven.

"Now is the time to sell our story to the world," she said.

Ardern's trump card was a well timed policy announcement which will allow 10 per cent of quarantine facilities to be allocated for specialist foreign workers - a move that will appeal to business concern about skill shortages.

Act leader David Seymour was also brimming with self-belief that seemed lacking in the other three contenders for Ardern's job.

He took the most critical approach to the Government's pandemic response and the most fiscally aggressive approach - describing current borrowing as "fiscal child abuse".

On economic growth, his specific ideas were a bit random: scrapping the Resource Management Act (National would do this too and even Labour says it will be reformed); relaxing rules around genetic engineering; a return to charter schools; and a more permissive approach to foreign direct investment.

In contrast, National leader Judith Collins seemed measured but equivocal, caught between her naturally aggressive style and the need to hold a centrist line.

She doesn't have Seymour's luxury of playing to the minority of New Zealanders unhappy with the Government's Covid response.

But it seemed an oddly cautious address given that business events are traditionally viewed as home games for National.

National's economic transformation plan might best be described as just getting on with it.

Heavy on think-big infrastructure (she even talked up a second Auckland harbour crossing), her pitch is that National will get things done where the Labour-led Coalition has failed.

That seems fair enough, although it relies on a track record forged under John Key, Bill English and Steven Joyce.

National Party leader Judith Collins talks with business on Friday during her visit to Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

That now seems like a long time ago and a galaxy far, far way from the one National has been in this year.

If we needed reminding why Labour failed to get a number of policies off the ground, NZ First leader Winston Peters was happy run with the line that his party has been a "handbrake for silly ideas".

He was also big on infrastructure - albeit through the lens of his party's Provincial Growth Fund.

There was mention of rail (heavy, not light) and planting one billion trees.

Otherwise he seemed content with a defensive approach.

"Don't stuff the country," he said - a policy that few would disagree with.

For Green Party leader James Shaw, this was always going to be a tough crowd.

Starting with a light-hearted quip about the Greens' philosophical objection to exponential economic growth, he went on to cover familiar themes around infrastructure, technology and moving agricultural exports up the value chain.